Betty has a Broken Heart

Hello Hupeople.  Betty has a broken heart .  I can hardly bear to tell you why.

You know that Mr Gove is killing 42,000 Badgers this Autumn?  Well, one of these is my favourite cub Bryony.  

I know that parents are not supposed to have favourite cubs but we all do.  Perhaps it is the naughty ones that we are specially fond of because we hold them in out hearts to try to keep them safe from their mischief. 

You might recall that Byrony got caught in a trap last year but some wonderful Hupeople helped her escape and she came home to us.   They are out there in the countryside in the dark saving my Badger friends while I write this, but they can't save them all.  Bryony loved peanuts just too much ......

and those nasty Humen put nuts inside a trap and Bryony just couldn't resist the smell.  So now she is shot dead by the flash-bang sticks and has a label like this:

Even more sad is that she was carrying little cubs inside her waiting for the spring when they would have popped out like naughty little Bryonys:

This killing of my Badger friends is an everyday reality at present, all over the countryside  from the West Country, to Cumbria.  Every day Badger families are torn apart by the wicked Humen with their flash-bang sticks who enjoy killing and want to make £50 for every Badger they shoot. 

But more wicked than the Shooters are the Hupeople in DEFRA and most especially Michael Gove.  They all know that the Badger Kill-Cull is unscientific and cruel and yet they carry on.  Mary and other even more clever people like the Zoological Society have told Mr Gove that killing us Badgers is wrongheaded and cannot work. We have given DEFRA a kinder and more effective strategy but they will not listen,  because they are in the pockets of the NFU who hate Badgers.

Mary and I both have water coming out of our eyes but we will try to carry on writing a bit more of our BLog and let you know about some happier matters. 

We visited DEFRA on the last 2 Thursdays and, on the first of these, two of Mary's friends came to play.  Here is their picture.  As Hupeople can't grow fur they wore body coverings with pictures of me on them. 

They are very good at making big signs and they made one specially for me. 

                                                                  Here I am with the lovely sign.

 It was really nice to have their company.  I do hope they will come again

Loads and loads of Hupeople had their picture taken with me and lots of them promised to Tweet me, whatever that means. I played Hide and Seek with a Hucub around a tree. 

Two DEFRA Humen came by and one of them said, "Oh my God; that last tab of LSD must have been pretty strong because I am having some amazing flashbacks; I just saw a huge Badger!"   I have no idea what he was talking about but I hope that's a good thing.

I promised that I would tell you about Badgers and Hedgehogs but I am too sad.  What I will say is that in a recent piece of research they have shown that in some areas where there no Hedgehogs there are no Badgers either. It is the Hupeople who are destroying both of us with their farming and their housing and their fences and their cars. So I wish Hupeople would stop yelling "Hedgehog Killer" at me and then running away and not listening to the science.  Then again, truth doesn't seem to matter much to some Hupeople. 

Mary has been causing mischief in her village by saying at her meeting last week that the shooting of Pheasants for sport is wrong and cruel. Particularly when they use poison to kill the Fox cubs and the Buzzards; apparently that is illegal but they do it anyway. We found a Pheasant that had been shot.  A Human was kicking it.  Mary tried to save it but it died. She took a picture of it before I ate it.  

She thought it was very beautiful; I thought it was tasty but had too many feathers.  Since the Hupeople don't eat most of the Pheasants they kill I might as well benefit.

It is the time of year when Badgers have to eat loads of food to carry us thought the winter.  The Holly trees have more berries than I have ever seen and Mary says this means it will be a very harsh winter.  

Any excuse to eat lots.  The trouble is, I can hardly get down my sett. I have become a very fat Badger.

Mary was very busy this week and she gave 4 talks to a school to 100 older Hucubs on the ethics of how Hupeople treat Animals.  She talked about Human Rights and Animal Rights and Racism and Speciesism.  She also told them about the Badger Kill-Cull and said that although Badgers do have Rights because they are a Protected Species, that doesn't seem to help us much as everyone seems to want to kill us!

I am not ending my Blog on a positive note because I am so very sad about my Cub Bryony.  Mary is going to put a link to a video from Change.org on the internet which shows the reality of the Badger Kill-Cull.  Neither Me nor Mary has looked at this because it is probably going to be too upsetting but if you want to know more then do take a look:

The reality of the Kill~Cull

Night night all kind Hupeople.   I hope that all the wicked Hupeople have horrible dreams and get bitten by fleas.

Betty. 🐾🐾🐾

Betty Goes To Birmingham

Hello Badger Fans. Betty here.

What a jolly time we had in Birmingham at the Conservatory Party Conference.  Some of my Friends were worried about a Badger being surrounded by Tories but I was safe with my  bodyguards.   These old fashioned ones: 

And these more modern ones.

I think I met some really famous Hupeople but they all look the same to me... Some of them did tell me who they were such as Alison Carter  from the BBC Radio 5 Live who is a really intelligent and kind Huwoman.  

  and there was a man who writes for The Spectator, and I might have spoken to Sajid Javid, but he was incognito...

I got a mention in The Guardian and from Matthew Paris in The Times, but he was a bit dismissive of the nuts and obsessives hanging around the outside of the conference. . Obsessive ? Moi?  Mary wrote to him and told him that we were just passionate trying to bring the irrational and cruel Kill Cull to an end.  

There were Hupeople protesting about all sorts of things and we became chums and I have to admit that there were a couple of quite strange Characters there. There was a very odd Human playing loud Irish music and saying that Christ will soon come and sweep all politicians from power.  That Christ sounds like a wise Human; I would like to shake His/Her paw when He/She comes. 

It was good to meet again the anti-nuclear man with his Dog who we met in Man Chester last year

Several recognised me from my London Vigil, calling out "It's the DEFRA Badger".  

I also met Hupeople working for HS2. That is a very fast tube on wheels and rails that will rush around the country, sometimes underground like a Badger, moving Hupeople from one place to another very very fast.  Some Hupeople don't want HS2 and they were protesting outside the Conference.  I was worried that the HS2 would kill the Badgers with their fast metal tubes but they told me that they were looking after the Badgers and the newts.  Here is one of the nice HS2 Huwomen who gave me a big hug:

The best thing about Birmingham is the West Midlands Police who are lovely and kind and we had a lot of fun.  I wish I could remember all their names.  They all took pictures of me.  

I asked the Police with the big guns to look tough while I took their pictures but they couldn't stop laughing and didn't look mean at all. 

Another good thing about Birmingham is the Hupeople who did so much for me and Mary when we got lost or needed a drink. They talk in a different way from the London Human but it is a nice sound they make. The other good thing about Birmingham is the big boxes on wheels called Buses, which are very fast and black and on time.  Me and Mary couldn't find our Bus stop so two inspectors escorted us to the right place and one travelled with us on the Bus to help us buy a ticket to ride to make sure we didn't get lost. This is a Bus:

And  this is a Metro which  is like the London Tubeworm but doesn't go through a tunnel. 

I hung around outside the Conservatory Party Conference in a building called the ICC for 3 days.  Many of the Tories said they were on my side but there were a few very nasty Humen.  One said that he wanted to gas me and all the other badgers in the country.

A horrible Humwoman shouted at me about TB and several shouted at me about hedgehogs but were very rude and would not stop and let me put them right about Badgers' innocence in these matters.

I see that Mrs May did some dancing at her Tory Party.  I think she dances very much like a Badger.  I wonder if she has been having lessons from a Badger

As well as me, there were a lot of Hupeople protesting about the Conservatories.  There were Waspie women who are sad because the Government took their pensions and, like Mary, they have to take in Lodgers or sell Kidneys to pay their bills.  You can recognise them because they wear purple:

Then there were the people protesting that the government was stealing their benefits and giving then something else instead called Universal Credit.  Some of these Hupeople moved around on wheels possibly because they had already had to sell their body parts or because they were ill.  Here they are: 

You probably won't be surprised to hear that Mr Gove didn't make it to tea with me and Mary.  But Mary will write to DEFRA again today.  She has a Plan to get rid of Cow TB and he really should listen.  Three of the famous Tory people we met said that DEFRA is in the pockets of the NFU- that is the group of farmers that live next door to DEFRA in Smith Square. 

Although we were very tired after standing around for 3 days we are very glad we went because we met so many who were kind to me, a humble Badger.  So many Hupeople said that the Kill-Cull was immoral and unjustified and they will do what they can to keep it in the Public Eye.  I had lots of Badger Hugs.

I took the family with me to Birmingham and left a few of the cubs behind.   They wandered off to find mates- well they are getting to the age now where they need to move to new setts and make their own cubs.  One little Hucub fell in love with one of my cubs and tried to run away with her.  When I roared at her she was so scared:

But she promised to look after the cub and they went home happily together .

Mary described Birmingham as a beautiful place, a bit like Venice with canals and old buildings.  

People in Birmingham like building and digging.  They dig deeper holes than badgers but they cheat because they haven't got big claws like us and use huge digging machines instead.  They also build some very tall setts that almost touch the clouds:

. 

There is so much I could tell you about the Wonders of Birmingham but what we all really want to know is whether Betty Badger made any difference in going to meet the Conservatories. I hope I did touch some Hearts and Minds.  

Today is National Badger Day.  Please think about us and tell everyone how we are being shot in the Kill Cull.  So many Hupeople don't know it is happening. And please drive carefully at night and look out for Betty and her friends who may be playing in the shadows.

Night Night and Happy Badger Day.

🐾🐾 Betty